winter

Winter brings with it many potential hazards for homeowners, including frozen pipes, indoor allergens, heating and cooling unit failure, fire and carbon monoxide dangers. In fact, there’s a greater risk of home fires in the winter when people are using space heaters, cooking holiday feasts, and hanging electric decorations.

With this list of easy-to-finish maintenance tasks, you can avoid many of the expensive, inconvenient, and dangerous situations that can ruin your holidays and your home’s value.

Check Your Heat Tape

Redfin says it best in their home maintenance guide: “You can’t control the weather, but you can control the effect cold temperatures have on your pipes.” If you haven’t checked your pipes since last winter, do it today. Fall is the perfect time to get this task out of the way before the snow comes, the temperature drops, and it’s too late. If your pipe cracks in the cold temperatures, your home may see significant water damage, and as the water sits, you likely will have a major mold problem as well.

The best way to prevent frozen pipes is to insulate them, especially if they are exposed or subjected to low temperatures in a crawlspace or attic. Heat tape or cables can be wrapped around pipes to prevent them from freezing. Just make sure to use the appropriate external or internal product and carefully follow the installation instructions, as improperly installed equipment can serve as a fire hazard.

You’ll also want to remove any external garden hoses from your home and allow those pipes to drain. Otherwise, any water that remains within the pipe can freeze and cause damage.

If you suspect your pipes are beginning to freeze or your power goes out during the winter months, you can trickle hot water from your kitchen and bathroom faucets to prevent the lines from freezing solid. While this isn’t a long-term plan, it can buy you enough time to apply heat tape or some other form of insulation.

Replace Your Furnace’s Air Filters

It doesn’t seem like a balanced trade-off, but that $15 air filter could easily save you thousands of dollars. That’s because clogged and dirty air filters are the most common cause of furnace and central air conditioning unit malfunction and breakage.

Not only do air filters extend the life of your HVAC unit, they also help to keep your energy costs down. According to the Department of Energy, the average household spends somewhere around $2,200 a year on energy, but that cost could be 5 to 15 percent lower for those who regularly change their air filters. Not only do you gain savings, you’ll also be breathing better-filtered air with less indoor allergens, and your air ducts will stay cleaner as well.

Test Your Detectors

You know that smoke detectors save lives, but just how many lives are we talking about? Well, if you consider that three out of five home fire deaths involved properties without working smoke alarms, you can significantly decrease your risk just by ensuring that your smoke detectors are in working condition.

This same principle goes for carbon monoxide detectors as well. Carbon monoxide is an invisible and odorless gas that can be very dangerous and even fatal. Fire departments throughout the United States routinely respond to many carbon monoxide emergency calls. It’s imperative for your family’s safety that your carbon monoxide detector is working.

While these home maintenance tasks seem minor at first glance, it’s clear that they can have major influence over the state of your home and the cost of maintaining it. Some simple, seasonal maintenance can save you thousands of dollars and maybe even your life.

We are firmly ensconced in winter; spring is at least nine weeks away. Most likely, if you’re in Michigan, your windows will be closed and you’ll be relying on your furnace (or boiler) to provide comfort. There are three things you should be aware of with regards to your furnace at this time of year.

There’s No “CO” in Danger (But there should be!)

Gas-burning systems create CO (carbon monoxide) a colorless, odorless gas that in sufficient quantities can be deadly to people (and pets!). Your home can fill up with CO from a damaged, improperly installed, or poorly maintained furnace. Yes, an annual inspection might cost you money, but are you able to determine if your furnace is spilling carbon monoxide into your home? It’s best to get a professional inspection once a year.

Unfriendly molecules

Just so you know, the first symptoms of CO poisoning are flu-like, but long-term exposure is deadly. Infants, children, and individuals with chronic health problems are most at risk.

A CO detector (at least one) in your home (with charged batteries) will also help in-between inspections if any problem arises.

As a general rule, change the batteries once a year, and change out your detector(s) around every ten years.

Is It Dry in here or Is It just Me?

Winter brings a lower humidity which can mean fun with static electricity.

Ouch!

As annoying as that is, low humidity creates problems ranging from dry skin to respiratory illness. Think about dry nasal passages and you’ll want a proper balance of humidity in your home.

Unfortunately, lack of humidity affects the wood in your home, too. Floors and furniture can crack just from a lower amount of atmospheric moisture.

The upside of a balanced humidity level not only brings health benefits and prolongs the life of wood products, but you can save money: with a lower evaporation point, the air seems warmer; you’ll be able to turn down the thermostat a degree or two, thus saving money and energy. Not to mention the lack of static sparks you’ll be generating.

If your furnace does not have a built-in humidifier, you might want to think about using room humidifiers.

Filtered or Unfiltered?

An easy fix for better air quality in your home is to make sure that the furnace filter is changed out when it should be. That can depend on the kind of filter your furnace uses–a range from one to six months is normal. If it looks dirty, change it now, rather than wait for it’s “expiration date.”

It’s a DIY action that can mean a lot for your family. However, be aware that the higher efficiency rating of a filter (which has nothing to do with energy savings) means a higher cost. If no one in your family has allergies, there is no reason to be purchasing a filter with a MERV rating of higher than 7. If a family member does suffer from allergies, don’t go higher than MERV 11. By the way, MERV stands for Minimun Efficiency Reporting Value. It’s a measurement scale from the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) to rate the filtration efficiency of filters. The higher the number the more particles the filter will hold.

Perhaps a new furnace filter would be easier?

If you tend to stay indoors more during the winter, you’re going to want to maximize the cleanliness of the air you and your family breathe. Keep the CO to a minimum, provide the right humidity, and use clean filtration as often as possible. Everyone will be that much happier when you binge watch shows or play games while the “weather outside is frightful…”

Madison Avenue likes to tell us that Labor Day is the last day of summer, when in reality, we have around two weeks left. The Autumnal Equinox marks the change in the earth’s tilt that shortens the daylight in the northern hemisphere.

TL;DR=Summer goes until late September.

The end of summer usually means children back in school, more focus at work, and generally less leisure hours. Which translates into “It’s time to close the swimming pool.”

What happens in a pool closing? If you do it yourself, you know. But if you hire it out, you may not even be around when it occurs.

Fear not, good reader. Clearwater explains it all in this POOL CLOSING 101.

It’s going to take a long time to drain your pool by suction and/or gravity. Perhaps you ought to let the professionals try.

Yes, we need to drain the precious summer’s life blood of pool water in order to blow out all the lines. You wouldn’t want pipes bursting in January, would you? Drain it below the returns for the maximum clean out.

Step #2 Remove the rails

This is straightforward enough. They’ve done their duty for the season, send them off to their long winter’s nap. The cover fits better when you don’t have to stretch it over hand rails, too.

Step #3 Fill the skimmer with anti-freeze.

Water will find a way into your skimmer one way or another. Better fill the lines with anti-freeze for protection against the ice of winter.

Shane endorses this brand of anti-freeze!

Step # 4 Check the filter and blow out the lines

Sometimes the filter needs cleaning, sometimes not, but it should always be checked. After that, blow the remaining water out of all the lines and add anti-freeze. Consider it winterized.

Thar she blows!

After checking for successful flow of anti-freeze, the lines are capped for the season.

Step #5 A Final Cleaning

If you slowed down on the clean-up of your swimming pool because you knew someone was coming to close it, we understand. Clearwater Pools and Spas (or hopefully the company you hired) will be glad to complete a final cleaning before your pool is put to bed for the winter.

Step #6 Adding Chlorine

The chlorine will lose its efficacy long before winter starts, but it does help keep down any algal growth for a couple of weeks. The upside is your pool will be covered and that will also inhibit the growth of plants that love to colonize your pool. Call it a courtesy.

Step #7 Covering the Pool

Essentially, the last step is to cover the swimming pool (preferably with a safety cover and not a tarp). This is done for several reasons. 1) It keeps the leaf litter out. 2) It adds a measure of safety to the pool. 3) It limits evaporation that might occur on (relatively) warm and sunny winter days. This reduces your water bill in the spring.

Securing the cover to the anchors

Can you walk on your cover?

Step#8 Farewell to Summer

You probably had many good times in your pool, but if you live in a temperate zone, you simply can’t use your pool year-round.

It’s October, it’s time to pull out the Autumn/harvest/Halloween decorations. It’s time to close your pool (perhaps by hiring it out). It’s time to say good-bye to summer and embrace the next season.

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Client Testimonials

We have a 1926 home with steam heat and radiators. I highly recommend ClearWater. [They provided] rapid assessment of the heating issue and expert repair. Thank you!

Chris, Livonia

What impressed me about ClearWater Construction was their focus on completing the project correctly the first time, the cleanliness of the work space in my home, and genuine friendliness of the entire staff. From the front office to the contractors working on my home, I had the impression that this team has a real rhythm working together.

Tim G., Detroit

The workers were very polite, courteous, and easy to talk to. They explained the process in terms I was able to understand. They were thorough and cleaned up the space when they were finished. They actually did more than they were hired to do, at no additional charge (fixed our storm door). They were professional and very family-friendly (regarding language).

Anessa M., Redford

I have used Clearwater for a number of years for the opening, closing, and maintenance of my pool as needed. I find them very thorough in their work and prompt with their service. I also like over the years having the same crew doing the work which helps to understand my needs. The other important aspect is I find them to be very prompt with their service and having calls answered live most of the time. If not, a callback is done promptly versus waiting a day or so for any follow up.